Here are the Christmas  closure dates for  Water Dragons swimming club .

The 10th of December will be the last day of the present  five week course

Our new 10 week courses will begin on Saturday the  7th of January at 10-15 – 11.00 and the second session at 11.00-11.45.

Bookings as usual,   are on a first come , first served  basis, and payment for the course must be paid on the start  date to ensure your childs’ place

I am pleased to welcome the new members who have joined  our club over the past few weeks.

Swimming Awards for the final weeks are being prepared so please check with your coach to see if an award is due for your siblings.

Charge for each award  is  £2.oo per badge and certificate.

Throughout the year we have gradually introduced water rescue and safety into our lessons and this month, and  six proud children have achieved the ASA Water Rescue Award.

I am hoping to photograph the presentation of their awards and publish the photo’s to  our web site soon.

For those interested in joining,  spaces are available in the 11.00am-11.45  session . You are welcome to pop into the pool at any time to view the classes in action

Thanks to all our parents for their continued support and I do hope to see you all return for another successful year .

My thanks to my swimming coaches for all their hard work in helping the children enjoy swimming and improving  their swimming knowledge.

Please do not hesitate to see me at the pool  or telephone with any questions .

Have a happy Christmas and New Year

Kind regards

Jean

Classes for Beginners and Improver at 10.15 and 11.00 am have spaces at the present time However we expect classes to fill quite quickly at the start of our courses

Newcomers are welcome to call at the pool to view our classes and your child may try a “taster” session when you can book for your 10 week course if satisfied.
Our advanced group have vacancies in the 11.00am courses. These cover improvement in all strokes – Introduction to diving, lifesaving and survival techniques
We accept no more than 10 in classes for beginners and Improvers and Advanced classes up to 15 swimmers.
Parents must inform us of any medical problems their child may have,  and it would also be helpful if a record of awards given elsewhere were supplied at start up, to avoid any duplication.

Contact me on 02920 253784 or e mail jean.davie@sky.com for more information.

We look forward to meeting and greeting new,  and all members to our September opening.

Kind Regards

Jean

The  icy conditions at 7.30 am today may mean that the grounds leading to the pool will be too dangerous to negotiate.   I  will contact the school  to check on the conditions there as soon as their office is open today and update you here asap.

It will be advisable to telephone me  to check that the swimming classes will be running today.  Conditions in my area look pretty grim and I too may be unable to  travel.

It will be advisable to telephone me nearer the time of opening.    (20253784)

Jean

Water Dragons swimming club will close for the Chrismas break on December the 11th 2010

Payment is now due  for the final five weeks covering  13th November to the 11th of December 2010 when the cost will be  £17.50

Water Dragons will re- open to continue with 10 week courses on Saturday the 8th of January 2011.

I am pleased to say that we have managed to hold our 10 week course charge to £35.00  for the New year.

New instructions  for the New Year regarding the children’s swimming ability.

Please note that those children who have managed stage three will remain at that level until they can manage the expected standards for the ASA  National Curriculum water skills award  before they can move to the next stage.

Then National water skills award requires that your child must be able to swim 25m in deep water  without stress , to tread water for two mins  submerge and then swim to the side and climb out unaided.

Due to this latest directive from the ASA  we will be replacing the 25m award with the national curriculum water skills award .

I have taken over Zoe’s  Stage two group which means that I will have some difficulty collecting the membership money.  If any parent feels that they could collect this for me during  the  hour lesson I would be very grateful  for your help.

Our beginner class is very small at the moment with just three in the 10.15 class and one in the 11.00 class so now is the time to enroll

January is also very quiet  and a good opportunity for your child to attend small classes If you are interested please contact me on 029   20 253784

I have still been unable to book pool time to introduce GCSE  lifesaving as an extention to our  club activities There may be a slot 9.00- 10.00 am  on Saturdays or 11.45  till 12.45.  I will canvas members to see if any of the improver /advanced group,  or their friends may be interested  in taking part in the near future.

Thanks once again  for all your support.  I do hope to see you all continue with the club in the New Year

Have a very happy Christmas and the very best New Year

Kind regards  Jean and all the coaches

Pat.Richard and Gloria

This year has flown and we are into the summer holidays already.

Water Dragons will close for three weeks starting  7th of August and re-open on 4th September – 2010

I would rather keep the pool session going  throughout the year but most parents take the children away on holidays during this month consequently bookings  are way down and maintaining the courses throughout August are not cost effective.

Members may have noticed that we have now brought in flippers and masks for the children to practice with during “Free time”  and it has been a favourite activity for all the children.  The little one are loosing out because we do not have flippers for the smaller sizes.  I am sorry but  funds will not reach to further purchases at the moment and,  if you are a parent of a child wearing the smaller size perhaps you would purchase a set for your child in one of the stores and bring them along to the sessions.?

Regarding the groups advanced improver and beginner–

Firstly-  we will not be taking any under 5′s year group from September–Those who are members will remain if they wish but  they will join the beginner group.

Improver’s and advanced groups all continue as normal.

New–  A recent  directive from the ASA has advised all coaches to  enforce   floating skills  as  an aid to survival during swimming lessons and that  research has shown that this skill is more important than swimming for survival,   we will be following that directive throughout our courses.

I am still concerned that parents are  talking to the coaches during the classes .  I cannot emphasize enough,  the dangers this causes to the children in the water-   The coach  is diverting his/her attention from  the children to the parent  and a near drowning incident can occur

Please do not hesitate to let me know of any problems / feedback/ ideas you may have which may help in  the continual improvement of  our club

Thank you all for your enthusistic  and continual  support.

Kind regards

Jean,  Richard , Pat ,  Gloria,   Zoe

On Saturday the 30th January Howell’s  school are holding an open day.

Expect a build up of traffic at the entrance, where helpers will be  directing drivers  to the car park within the  grounds.

In past years parking has not been a problem on these occasions but    when entering the grounds of the school  let the helpers know that you are using the pool and you should  be  able to travel to your normal parking area.

We may have  parents visiting  the pool while we are there,  so please ensure that any non swimming children are sitting  with you,  and keep push- chairs and baggage  clear of the surrounding area.

Saturday the 30th I hope to bring along some  Resusci-Annies to introduce  the children to water rescue and resuscitation practice.  We will us very brief sessions over the next 10 weeks, this will be as addons to swimming classe s,  and by the end of the course,  a basic understanding will have started  to be established.    Awards for these learned skills will be presented when the children have reached the standards  set.

We have had a good response from the children who say that they are looking forward to  the new activities which they should fnd enjoyable

Kind Regards

Jean

Thankfully the grounds at Howell’s school are now accessable with  all pool booking  back on track  and will start  tomorrow Saturday the 16th January 2012 –Same time same place!   Make sure the children are wrapped up warmly as there still  seems to be a considerable wind chill factor.

Remember coaches have moved to new groups –

Richard is taking Class four   The Improver/ advanced 6 +

Pat is taking Class Three The improvers   stage 4/5

Zoe taking class Two Beginner             stage  2/3

Gloria taking class One Beginner              stage  1/2

Please note there will be vacancies in some of the classes so feel free to pop in  between 10.00 and 11.30 if you are looking for classes for your child

We look forward to welcoming all our parent old and new !

See you there :0)

Jean

Hopefully the ice and snow will all be cleared by next Saturday when we can re start the classes

Kind regards

Jean

A new  10 week course will start on January 9th 2010

As usual we start our classes at 10.15 and at 11.00.    A place in each of the four ability classes will be given on a first come first served basis on the day.   Hopefully the snow will have cleared by then,  but as there is the possibility that we may be unable to get to the pool and the  conditions appear to be poor,  it would be best to phone me on 20 253784  to confirm before 9.30 am on Saturday morning.

New for this year:  This  will see the introduction of   Basic Resuscitation-  taught to all ability groups  with the exception of the beginners,  who are a little too young;   The introduction and practice of the skill will be short and brief during most sessions.  This is not intended to  distrupt the main practices of swimming strokes,   but help expand their knowledge further;   By the end of the ten weeks we should see that the children  will have  good understanding of the  skills of saving a life.

Any adult wishing to learn the Basics and practice of Resuscitation,  are welcome to join in,  and if I am free  will willing lead you through the practice of saving a life instead of just  sitting and watching the  children doing all the work  :0)

Please note that parents must not talk to the teachers during the lesson  but must wait until the class has finished.

However all quiries must come through me,  when  I will do my best to rectify any problems you may encounter.

We aim to please!!

I look forward to seeing you and your children for this new year.

Kind regards

Jean

Saturday the 9th of January 2010.
We are running a short course of 5 weeks from November 14th until the 12th December

and we will welcome any parent who’s  children wish to join the beginner class.  There

are spaces in both the 10.15 session and the 11.00 session,  due to all the beginner

group moving up a class.   Well done every-one !
I have decided to move the coaches into different classes for future  swimming

lessons

The children will now have a different coach and  refer to classes as class

One (Gloria)    Class Two (Zoe)      Class  Three (Pat)     Class Four (Richard)

This is to make the group grading simpler for you to follow,  and also give the

coaches a change  taking a higher / lower group with fresh new challenges.

You may have noticed that we are introducing snorkles  and flippers into the

lessons which the children are enjoying.  However, we need to have more- and if any

parent can help by bringing along any they are not using,  we would be eternally

grateful!
I have suggested that we may decide to open another session for adults etc-  but so far

there has been little response.   Maybe the cold weather is the problem! I am still

considering it for next year,  so keep me posted if you are interested.   I will need at

least 12 participants  for it to be viable

I do hope you will all return in the New Year for the new 10 week course of swimming

lessons.

Thank you all again for helping us make this another successful year.

Kind regards

Jean The Boss :0)
Richard Zoe Gloria and Pat.